The photograph/tapestry I chose to focus on is titled "Lorna." This is, clearly, an image of an African American woman. She is smiling coyly at the camera, and the photograph is in black and white. One of the first things the viewer notices when observing the photograph is the "shininess" of her face, which Close probably achieved by boosting the contrast to bring out the white tones in her face. By doing so, he has given her face a slightly surreal and glossy look, which was fascinating to see transferred onto a tapestry -- the ability to portray three-dimensional texture on fabric is always amazing to me. "Lorna" makes me feel as if I've regressed into a childlike state, because of the stern yet playful look on the subject's face. It seems to mimic a mother looking upon her child. The angle of the shot is the main technique Close used to achieve this effect, in my opinion. By making her look down upon the viewer, this feeling of condescension is amplified in a physical sense as well as an emotional one. The shallow depth of field is crucial as well, because it allows the viewer to feel closer to the subject and therefore experience a more intense emotional response. This photograph is very inspirational to me, because I am working with vaseline and blurred focus for my independent work, and this is used (or at least portrayed) quite skillfully in this image. It goes hand-in-hand with depth of field in this sense to reiterate the focus on the face and the expression of this woman.
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